Knox honors five with 2012 Alumni Achievement Awards

Above,the 2011 Founders Day Convocation and Alumni Achievement Award Ceremony

With nearly 20 prior winners of Knox College Alumni Achievement Awards returning to campus for this year's special 175th anniversary Founders Day Convocation, the College honors four alumni at the convocation on February 17 for their achievements in space technology, community service, field biology and higher education.

The convocation is free and open to the public at 5 p.m., Friday, February 17, in Kresge Hall, Ford Center for the Fine Arts. For those who will be unable to attend the ceremony, it can be viewed live via Livestream.

It is one of a series of events in February 2012 in celebration of the 175th anniversary of the founding of Knox College and Galesburg in 1837. The College was chartered on February 15, 1837.

Receiving 2012 awards are Lynn Wright of North Potomac, Maryland, who designed control systems for NASA lunar missions and the Space Shuttle; Mary Lu Hudson Aft of Cincinnati, Ohio, a successful volunteer event organizer and fund raiser; James Solomon of St. Louis, Missouri, curator of the herbarium at the Missouri Botanical Garden; and Norman Golar, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, assistant professor of English and chair of the English department at Stillman College.

Also receiving an award this year is Peter Leibig, of Denver, Colorado, president and CEO of Clinica Family Health Services. Leibig was selected for the award in 2011 but was unable to attend last year's ceremony.

In celebration of Knox's 175th anniversary this year, the 2012 Founders Day Convocation also will recognize prior recipients of Alumni Achievement Awards. Currently, 19 prior winners are schedule to return for the ceremony.

In addition to participating in the convocation, many of the alumni are meeting with students and faculty for class lectures and individual conferences.

Lynn S. Wright '63

Lynn Wright graduated from Knox in 1963 with a degree in mathematics. After graduating from Knox, Lynn began a 30-year career at IBM, including 17 years with IBM's Federal Systems Division at Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. Working as a programmer, flight controller, and manager, Lynn supported all 17 Apollo missions, as well as the first seven Space Shuttle missions. He developed the Earth Orbit Trajectory Supervisor which provided control of spacecraft events and activities for Apollo 5 and the Cislunar Trajectory Determination Processor used on Apollo 8, the first mission to orbit the moon. He later led development of the Air Forces' Global Positioning System and in 1994, he was named vice president of engineering and technology for Lockheed Martin's Mission Systems Company, retiring in 2001. Wright is currently working with his hometown of Shelby, Ohio, to develop a technology incubator, and he promotes science education and careers in technology in schools in Ohio and Maryland.

Mary Lu Hudson Aft '60

Mary Lu Hudson Aft graduated from Knox College in 1960 with a degree in mathematics. For more than 30 years, Aft worked with the American National Red Cross as a volunteer trainer and training designer. Since 1987, she has been involved with the Cincinnati Friends of the Public Library, helping organize a book sale that has raised more than $1 million each year for the library system and provided used books and recordings to schools, hospitals, and prisons. She is a founding member of the Community Advisory Council for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. In 1999 she was named "Woman of the Year" by The Cincinnati Enquirer. In addition, she has represented United Way International in Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Indonesia, among other countries.

James Solomon '74

James Solomon graduated from Knox in 1974 with a degree in biology and completed a Ph.D. in biology at Washington University in St. Louis. He joined the staff of the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1981, conducting botanical inventories at selected sites throughout Bolivia. Since 1989 he as served as the curator of the Missouri Botanical Garden's Herbarium. With more than 6 million specimens, it is the second largest botanical collection in the United States and one of the five largest in the world. Solomon has traveled throughout America and Asia, including Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Republic of Georgia, and Tajikistan. He has published numerous major papers on plant taxonomy and systematics, and is internationally known for his work encouraging basic botanical field research in the United States and especially in developing countries.

Norman Golar '02
(Young Alumni Achievement Award)

Recipient of the 2012 Young Alumni Achievement Award, Norman Golar graduated from Knox in 2002 with a degree in creative writing. A Ronald E. McNair Scholar, he worked with Knox faculty on two McNair-sponsored research projects analyzing the poetry of contemporary African-American writers. In his junior year he was named College Marshal, and in his senior year he was honored as a 2001 Student Laureate by the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. Golar earned a doctorate in composition, rhetoric, and English studies at the University of Alabama. In 2010, he accepted the position of assistant professor of English and chair of the English department at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His poetry has been published in numerous journals, and he was chosen as a Southern Regional Education Board Doctoral Scholar, a national program that provides support and encouragement for minority students in Ph.D. programs and academic careers.

Peter Leibig '73
(Selected 2011)

Peter Leibig, who graduated from Knox with a degree in English literature in 1973, is president and CEO of a Clinica Family Health Services, a system of federally funded Community Health Centers serving underserved residents of the Denver-Boulder metropolitan area. Leibig was unable to attend the 2011 ceremony and will receive his award this year.